About Me

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Scram Pram Sailing Test Video

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted, but many things have been going on and so I've had to do some "load-shedding" for a while. In the meantime, things haven't been standing still, and among other changes, I now have a new building shed which is 12 metres (40ft) by 9 metres (30ft) under roof,and 12m (40ft) by 6 metres (20ft) enclosed. The shed is insulated against our fierce summer heat and is built to withstand cyclonic winds. In addition to normal (for Australia) 240 volt single-phase AC power, I've got 415 volt three-phase AC hooked up to a couple of outlets. I just need some money now so I can purchase a big 3-phase compressor!!

Being beaten-up by a jealous local thug, while at the same time being protected by my vicious Toy Poodle called Brandy

Both of us very tired, but also very happy!

Since the photos were taken I've moved in a lot of gear, and most importantly, built a 12m x 600mm workbench down one entire side. I've laser-leveled it, and run a 4" dust extraction pipe underneath the length of the bench, with multiple blast-gate equipped inlets spaced regularly.

In February and April I posted some information about a Jim Michalak-designed Scram Pram which I had been working on for a customer/friend, Greg Flemming. You can see them HERE and HERE

Anyway, my part of the job was finished quite a long while back, and the boat, Nellie, has been in my care waiting for Greg to complete a move and then pick her up for internal finishing and painting. A couple of weeks ago some wooden boat friends were camping out at a local lake, and it was too good an opportunity to miss, so with Greg's permission - encouragement, in fact - I took Nellie for some test sailing.

She performed very well indeed with her Jim Michalak homemade sail, and during the filming we had no water-ballast in the tanks. In the shots from outside, I was sailing the boat by myself, but in the shots taken from aboard you can see that I allowed some local pirates on-board. I did subsequently fill all of the ballast tanks, and she continued to sail superbly. It was nice to be out of the sun and spray, and I can assure you that the boat ventilated effectively from the sail down-draft.